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A walk down memory lane. I have read tons of these files (not only the RPG-related stuff; actually more like random netbooks and diskmags) and it was a formative experience. And for me, it is a perfect example of nostalgia: something that evokes fond memories, but I do not particularly want to revisit.

Some highlights typical of the period:"The Highlander Guide for Fantasy Role Playing Games by Duncan McDier of the Clan McDier" Your favourite series: the gamening.

"The Complete Guide to Metallica for Fantasy Role-Playing Games" (actually about a fantasy metal)

"The First Annual Neo-Anarchists Guide to Everything Else" Punkpunk, general coolguyism and "the Orichalcum Cyberarm".

"The Blue Ball Bowling System, by Desmond Reid" Among the many useless net guides written by Desmond Reid, this is one of the least interesting. But we learn that "Bowling (BOHL ing) is one of the oldest underground sports. It is played by rolling a ball down a highly polished wooden runway toward ten wooden pins set up in the form of a triangle." and "Various forms of bowling have been developed by different races including Head-Bowl by the hill giants, a smaller version of bowling called Nuts by the gnomes, Bowling-For-Blood by the goblins, and MagiBowl by some upper-class humans with magical abilities and/or lots of money."Oh Desmond.

Bat in the Attic Games

How to make a Sandbox

The Old School Renaissance

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

What are RPGs?

A game where the players play individual characters interacting with a setting with their actions adjudicated by a human referee.

Rules are an aide to help the referee adjudicate actions and to help the players interact with the setting.

Dice are used to inject uncertainty which make a tabletop RPG campaign more interesting than "Let's Pretend".

The only thing a player needs to do to roleplay a character is to act if he or she was really there in the setting in that situation.